Travel Plans
by Lori von Loco
Summary: "She leaned against the door frame and crossed her arms, enjoying the warmth in her chest and the way Gansey held her stare with that pretty smile of his." Gansey invites Blue to go on a road trip with him and the boys.


**Travel Plans**

**A/N:** I started writing this sometime last year and I'm confident I'll never finish it, unfortunately. It was going to be a lighthearted chapter story about everyone having fun on a mini-vacation (featuring Pynch and Glue), but I didn't want to toss this out, so I'm uploading it as a standalone. Hope you guys enjoy it! And good luck to everyone out there like me who hasn't finished Blue Lily, Lily Blue yet and are just clamoring to!

-x-

The Pig, for all its appearance- and AC-related shortcomings, was a remarkably stubborn survivor, a fact that Blue had learned sometime in the past couple of months. Gansey's sputtering pride and joy had gotten them places she honestly never thought they'd reach—and it had only broken down once during their time in it. In all actuality, the car was pretty marvelous.

Despite her strange affection for the vehicle, when Gansey showed up on her doorstep at four in the morning to cheerfully propose she join the boys on a ten-hour road trip, she was surprised to find her first instinct was to feel incredibly dubious that the car could survive that long, rather than irritated at him for visiting her at such an indecent hour. A moment later, however, the irritation kicked in.

"Gansey, do you have any idea what time it is?"

Hazel eyes sparkled beneath raised brows as he declared, with confidence, that it was "the perfect time to start the trip." When Blue leveled a disbelieving look at him, his eyebrows settled down a bit. The sparkle still remained. "If we don't leave early, we won't make it there in time to do the things we have planned."

Blue looked over her shoulder for any sign of her mother, then back at Gansey to release a pointed sigh. "You realize I'm going to have to wake my mom up to ask her about this."

"Will she say no?"

"Doubtful."

She watched his easy smile stretch into an exuberant grin and couldn't help but smile back, despite herself. "First of all, where are you going? Second, what did you have planned?"

"Milledgeville, Georgia. We're going to visit the Lockerly Arboretum and Lake Sinclair."

The girl nodded once, considered his words for a moment, and finally said, "Okay, I'll bite—what does this have to do with Glendower?"

A half-smile crossed his face at the same time he sighed softly through his nose, which gave her the answer to her question before Gansey even opened his mouth. "Nothing, actually. Not this time. I believe it's time we take a little break."

"So you woke me up at four a.m. for a trip that has nothing to do with Glendower at all?" Her tone was flat, unable to tell if she was trying to sound annoyed or glad to have been included. Eventually she decided on the latter; the fact that he had come to get her, even when the situation had no relevance to magical entities, cemented their friendship. She felt a tad bubbly thinking about it.

"Affirmative," Gansey replied with a brief smirk. "What do you say, Jane?"

"I dunno…" She pretended to think about it, tapping her chin for dramatic effect. "Ten hours in the Pig? With _Ronan?_ That sounds pretty hellish."

"It wouldn't be the same without you."

Her chest warmed considerably and, before she could work in the proper sarcasm, she blurted, "It wouldn't?" in a manner that betrayed her genuine concern.

Gansey looked surprised that she would even ask such a question. "Of course not. You're one of us. Well, not an Aglionby boy—"

"Thank goodness."

"—But one of _us_."

She leaned against the door frame and crossed her arms, enjoying the warmth in her chest and the way Gansey held her stare with that pretty smile of his.

From the street, a horn suddenly blared, sending Gansey into a paternal sort of frenzy as he spun around to ensure his car was all right. Blue pressed a hand to her chest and stared at the Camaro with wide eyes.

"Are you two done making out?" Ronan yelled from the passenger seat, his hand still poised over the horn. "I thought you said we had to leave, man!"

Gansey blew hair out of his face and looked back at the girl, eyes beseeching.

Before she could answer, Persephone and Calla came into the room behind her, skittering and stomping, respectively. "Are those _your _boys, Blue? They are. At this hour? Unbelievable." All of this was voiced in a rushed grumble by Calla, who stomped out of the living room as quickly as she'd stomped in.

"I knew it," Persephone whispered to herself, glancing at Gansey before slowly edging back to her bedroom.

Blue closed her eyes and counted to five. Right on cue, Maura materialized beside her. Even Noah would've been jealous of the speed at which she managed to appear. "I take it you boys are going on a little trip?"

The crowd-pleasing political Gansey swooped in faster than both Noah and Maura put together. "Yes, ma'am, we are. I came by to ask you if your daughter could come along, too. It would be a pleasure to have her."

It didn't escape Blue how the boy's eyes darted to her for a fraction of second as he said the last part. "And I'm terribly sorry for my friend's loudness," he added quickly, flashing Maura his professional smile—the one dripping with money, social privilege, and other synonyms for power. Blue felt herself squinting at him before she thought to contain herself.

Maura blinked once, assessing him; twice, debating the answer; three times, relaxing. "All right," she said at length. "You can go, Blue."

"Thanks, Mom."

She received a nod in response.

"Thank you, Miss Sargent."

He received a nod as well, though the woman yawned through it. "What time can I expect her back? She does have a job, you know."

Gansey dipped his chin in a nod. "I didn't forget, ma'am." Blue had. "We would be back tomorrow evening. I can arrange for her to be excused from work today, if I must… If that's all right with you two."

When Maura only shrugged, Blue took that as an appropriate time to nod vigorously. A day off from Nino's was exactly what she needed.

"All right, Blue. I trust you." Maura ran a hand as far as she could get it through Blue's tangled locks before giving up and patting her on the head, instead. Her gaze moved to the boy on her porch. "I'm trusting you too, Mister Politics. Calla would hate to hear that the Pretty One let me down, so you won't, right?"

"I wouldn't dare, ma'am."

"Good." With that, Maura returned to her room, prompting Gansey's professional smile to melt into a more genuine one.

"Mister Politics?" he asked.

"I'll go get ready," Blue replied.

By the time she made it back outside, she was dressed and her hair was tangle-free. She carried with her a large, yellow tote bag that had a black tree printed on both sides of the cloth. The strap was long and looked a little too strained to only contain a night's worth of supplies.

"Finally," Ronan griped, leaning his head back against the seat.

Gansey slid back into his rightful place behind the wheel and stuck his arm out the open window to gesture for Blue to put her bag in the trunk.

"Where's Noah?" she asked just as the Pig's trunk popped open.

"I'm right here," the boy answered from behind her, which Blue was certain would've landed him an eyeful of mace, had she been carrying any.

Her voice was a bit breathless when she spoke again. "_Oh._ Hi, Noah."

"Hey, Blue." He patted her hair while she situated her bag in the trunk along with a shiny, black, almost perfectly square suitcase that was just improbable enough to belong to Gansey, a shabby red pull-along suitcase she had no difficulty identifying as Adam's, and a blue duffel bag only zipped up halfway, which could only be Ronan's. When she was through, she shut the trunk back with the care she thought Gansey might show and followed Noah into the backseat.

She catalogued the moment Gansey turned the key in the ignition that they would be spending this trip with her sitting behind Gansey, Noah behind the console, Ronan in the passenger seat, and Adam behind him. Afterwards, she took a deep breath to prepare herself for the adventure.

After Gansey left a politely-worded voicemail on the staff phone at Nino's, they were off as soon as the Camaro would allow it. Blue tried to expel her excitement through her vivacious grip on the door handle.

Ten hours 'til Georgia, she told herself. She began counting down.


End file.
